DIY Friday – seam wars

Friday you sexy beast, we meet again. And it couldn’t have come sooner as it means I can finally show you what I’ve been up to this week! 
But before I jump into today’s DIY, I will first say sewing is not my forte. My most sincere apologies in advance as I did not include progress pictures for today’s tutorial. I normally don’t sew beyond the basics of repairing clothes, but I managed to successfully sew up this little number for today’s DIY Friday, and it ended up being a fairly straight forward job. Which literally translates to – if I can do it, anyone can. 

It all started with a Star Wars t-shirt I saw it in H&M and had to have. More so for husband’s benefit than my own since he is the fan, and my eyes start to glaze over if someone talks about Star Wars for more than 4 minutes. Unfortunately, after one wash said t-shirt warped and is now too short in the torso for my liking {do not want muffin tops hanging out}. I didn’t have the heart to give it away, so I immediately thought of transforming it into a pillow {I’ve done something similar before with a skirt}. 

Luckily, I had a pillow insert that was the perfect size. Keeping the image centred, I drew the dimensions of the pillow. I cut it out including an additional inch border along all four sides. Since the t-shirt fabric was thin and a bit too stretchy, I used some fun, flowery fabric of my own as the pillow backing to give a bit of structure. I sewed the two pieces together and voilà! 

It was a pretty straight forward and I channelled my elementary school quilting techniques {drawing a line with a ruler, sew along said line}. And to further trick people into thinking it’s a real pillow, the t-shirt had its own little authenticated Star Wars label sewn in so I seam-ripped that baby out and incorporated it into the finishing pillow seam. Legit. 
Happy Friday, friends! I hope this week treated you well, and you have a totes awesome weekend lined up. xx A

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15 Comments

  1. May 24, 2013 / 13:06

    The addition of the tag – pure genius.
    Actually, this whole project – pure genius. I am currently working on a old sweater project, hope it comes out as great as this.

    • May 30, 2013 / 09:43

      Well thank you Mrs. Wheele. The devil is in the details.

      I can't wait to see your sweater project, I am v. intrigued …

  2. May 24, 2013 / 14:02

    This looks great Alex; a really funky new cushion that will never shrink again… as long as you get it drycleaned next time!

    • May 30, 2013 / 09:44

      Haha yeah. I'm hoping since it's been washed already, it won't shrink again. Hopefully! xx

  3. May 24, 2013 / 16:29

    I'm a total Star Wars nerd so needless to say I love. I have yet to attempt making a pillowcase for fear of well, not being able to make a pillowcase.

    • May 26, 2013 / 14:05

      Well, this one was a huge success. Freaking love it.

    • May 30, 2013 / 09:46

      Seriously Alex, I cannot sew/repair anything more than holes in a sock. I wasn't joking when I wrote if I can do it, anyone can. Just take 'er slowly, and don't rush yourself.

  4. May 29, 2013 / 15:23

    This looks great!
    I did this to a bunch of tees a few years ago, with the pics on my harddrive to sometime become a blog post… errrr.
    We've got Bloc Party, Coney Island and HMV (where we met and worked together) on our couch 🙂

    • May 30, 2013 / 09:50

      Oh I would love to see them Mel. Not to mention pictures of JAPAN. So excited to see more of them. And ragingly jealous.

  5. May 29, 2013 / 17:34

    This is really cool Alex 🙂 It was the perfect T for a recycle into a cushion! Oh and I'm with you on the Star Wars… Snore. But Star Trek… well ever since JJ Abrams took over, it's got pretty cool 😉

    • May 30, 2013 / 09:59

      Well with you on that, Holly! We watched the second Star Trek movie the other day and I have to say, very entertaining. Big dramatic cinematic scenes. It was great.

  6. May 29, 2013 / 21:15

    My hubby would have a stroke if I showed him this post! Haha If you manage to make another one I would definitely buy it. He is Star Wars obsessed! Your ideas are feckin' brilliant!

    • May 30, 2013 / 10:02

      Goodness, thank you Caz! I'm afraid it'll be some time before I sew up another pillow. I am a bit poop at it.

      I take heart in knowing I am not the only one married to a Warsy {Star Wars equivalent to a Trekky?}.

  7. June 4, 2013 / 13:48

    I love the pairing of the hot pink with the fabric on the back!